In the first sense, "on this side of", this prefix is usually attached directly to the word it modifies, or sometimes separated from it by a hyphen: cisrhenane, cis-Neptunian.

In the gender-related senses, this prefix is attached directly to certain words, most notably cisgender and cissexual (which are almost always spelled thus, not as e.g. *cis sexual). In other cases, the related standalone adjective cis is used: hence one speaks of a cis perspective (not *cisperspective), etc. In particular, it is now sometimes considered offensive to write cisman or cis-man, the preferred spelling being cis man (cisman). Compare trans- and trans.